Electroless Plating of Transition Metal Boride with High Boron Content as Superior HER Electrocatalyst

Graphical Hydrogen evolution reaction : A strategy of electroless plating of transition metal boride with high boron content to fabricate binder-free catalytic electrode with superior HER activity has been realized. Facile deposition of transition metal boride (TMB) with high-boron content as highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst has been realized by a facile one-step electroless-plating (EP) method. Boron content of the TMB catalyst shows an appreciable impact on its intrinsic HER activity. NiB/NF electrode with thin amorphous nickel boride (NiB) deposition on nickel foam (NF) required overpotential of only 41.2 mV to deliver a current density of 10 mA cm −2 for HER in 1.0 M KOH alkaline electrolyte. Meanwhile, this kind of electrode also shows satisfied stability which can work at large current density of 1000 mA cm −2 for over 72 h without performance degradation. The advance on the TMB electrode may pave a way to the development of practical electrodes for water splitting.